Last year, at the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year, teachers were given a very daunting task: teach a lesson a day on 15 topics for which someone else has written the lessons and assessments. All of these had to be completed in the first three weeks of school along with the usual MAP testing. The purpose was to teach missed skills from the Covid-19 quarantine that happened when schools shut down in March.
The problem with this? They were asking 6th grade teachers to teach argumentative writing analysis without first teaching the other skills and vocabulary needed to understand.
When asked my thoughts on this, I explained that up until 6th grade, students are taught about persuasive writing, but not about reasoning and emphasis is not placed on evidence. Once they reach middle school, we start breaking down arguments and reasoning, and we ask if evidence is sufficient. We ask them to write argumentative essays and to provide (as well as explain) evidence. This can be difficult for 6th graders to grasp. Even today, I can tell a huge difference in the writing of my 7th graders whom I taught last year, and those I did not teach.
One thing that I did do differently this year was to teach writing structure before argumentative. We studied the structure, and then I had students write using that structure. I then had them take information from their essays and the articles that we read and complete graphic organizers showing supporting details (which we will later refer to in arguments as reasons and evidence). This transition of learning is necessary, especially for my 6th graders, due to the fact that so many lacked the skill to write a paragraph. Learning how to properly structure paragraphs teaches them how to include their evidence later when writing argumentative essays and then transitioning that over to their Text Dependent Analysis that they have to do on their state standardized test.
As I transition to argumentative writing, I will be sharing with you, my readers, some of the skills that I use in the classroom. Teaching argumentative writing and TDAs have become a strong suit of mine. I will be sure to share with you some of the resources that I use, as well. Stay tuned.
